I was invited to speak at a church in California some years ago. We’d heard of a great hike that led up to a summit. My wife and I are really into Summit views. So we found the trail head and we go up after about five minutes trail split to the left, end to the right. And there wasn’t a sign we knew that only one of them went up to the summit. Well, fortunately there was a young man who was hiking with his dog. He’s coming down at the time, and if you were a casting director and wanted to cast a guy walking the foothills of California with his dog, that’s what he looked like. All right, you already know what he looked like. So I stopped and said, Hey, excuse me, we’re, we’re trying to get up to the summit and we don’t know if we’re supposed to go left or whether we’re supposed to go right. Do you know? He looked at me and he said, there is no left. There is no right. Just be <laugh>.

I said, okay, but if I wanna be on the summit, do I go this way or that way? And he said yes and walked off with his dog. <Laugh> that that conversation kind of typifies where I think our country’s at. We, we don’t even feel like we’re speaking the same language. We feel like we’re living in two different universes. If the pollsters are to believed, there are about 50% of us that are saying, how could anybody in the world vote for Donald Trump? And about 50% saying, how could anybody even consider voting for Kamala Harris? And about 99% of the country, they’re saying, why would anybody vote for Jill Stein Cornell West or Randall Terry? I dunno if you saw those names on the ballot as well. And me just mentioning this already raises the level of anxiety in the room. Is Gary going to tell us who to vote for?

And some will be really angry if I do, and some will be really angry if I don’t. But here’s where we’re coming from. If you’re new, we’re a part of a denomination called the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. It’s founded in part by the founding pastor of this church. And their tagline is this, an essentials unity in non-essentials, liberty, and in all things charity. So we have churches that disagree on really significant things. Some churches baptize infants, others focus on believers or adult baptism. Some churches have women as elders, some churches don’t. A lot of us dis disagree on eschatology and times theology, which I really like because I disagree with my own eschatology depending on what month you ask me. And that’s what I make makes different. I know what bloggers and the podcasters say about what your pastor would say, but this is a real church.

This isn’t like every church I’ve been at. And I know we will not all vote for the same person. In fact, I don’t believe all of our elders will vote for the same person. While I care very much personally about the outcome of this election, I’m even more passionate that as a church we will continue to seek first the kingdom of God and keep moving forward in this work called Cherry Hills Community Church. And again, if you’re new, I’m saying this not to brag on myself, I’m not the senior pastor. I’m just a teaching pastor. I came along after Kurt part following Kurt. I believe that God has a special touch on our senior pastor’s life. And I’ve been in awe at what God is doing here. I’ve spoken in about 500 different churches, so I kind of know what’s going on. And most churches I’m at, the question is, have you gotten up to your covid numbers?

We are triple what we were during covid. Now, numbers don’t mean everything. I’m not saying that, but I just think what God is doing something really special here. And I don’t want us to miss that. This whole vision. And I think it was brilliant on Kurt’s part with all the line and gaslighting going on, that we could come here every Sunday and focus on greater things. This work of God that will free victims of sexual trafficking, that will feed the hungry, that will help families stay together. That will be this light, this beacon of light on a dark hill. I’m so excited about that. And yet being close to Kurt, I know further plans are ahead. We wanna do even more with you, even more with marriage, even more about how do we share our faith? Because what matters is not how many people are coming in here, but what needs to be done out there.

And so much more needs to be done. And I’m so grateful to be a part of this. I mean, Myron and his team bring it every week here to help us worship the name of Jesus. But we’ve gotta keep it fresh. And so here is my passion as we go into this. I don’t want us to lose a half step over this election. I’m not saying it doesn’t matter. I’m just saying I’m really excited about what’s here. And I don’t want us to slow up at all in what God has called us to do. So I want to talk about those three things that I believe can unify us as we go into election week. And the first one is this, more important than who we elect as President is who we worship as God. More important than who we elect as President is who we worship as God.

Psalm 33 12 says this, bless is the nation whose God is the Lord, who’s the people whom he has chosen as His heritage. Now, blessed could be happy. Now unequivocally in context, it’s referring to Israel. But because of the work of Jesus that we just celebrated, Jesus opened it up to the Gentiles, IE us and said, your nation can be blessed if you will make your heritage, God, if you’ll make the worship of God the focus of who you are. And it’s even more exciting, you’ll at Second Chronicle 69, I love this for the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. God’s looking over the entire globe, looking for hearts fully committed to them. And he says, I will strengthen them. Those people live in Australia, Asia, or Africa. He will strengthen them. I am so grateful for what’s happened here in the United States and how God is using the United States, but he’s moving all over the world. We are in a international faith. Chris Tomlin just posted this earlier this week about something he saw. Now, yeah, is that good?

I I don’t know where those people are from. It’s so exciting to see young people worshiping God. I don’t know where they’re from. I know where they’re not from. Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and all the states that everybody seems obsessed with right now. That’s what they’re focused on. But that is where God will strengthen those people. Now, God has used the United States in some amazing ways. I remember traveling through Italy one time and a driver stopped, said, I wanna take you to a place that’s not on your agenda. And he took us to the cemetery. I’ll never forget, thousands of white crosses of US soldiers that gave their lives to fight back true fascism in that country. And he said, we will never forget what your country has done for us. But if we reject God, he’s not dependent on the United States. I have a good friend who’s been a United Methodist church pastor for decades and his church recently left and he told me for years that many of the churches from the US were trying to run away from biblical truth. And it was the African nations that kept stopping ’em saying, no, this isn’t right. This isn’t biblical. Until finally somebody in the US said, fine, then we’ll just split. What this tells me is that the work of God is not dependent on any one nation, but every nation’s ultimate happiness is dependent on one and only one God. God doesn’t need the United States. The United States needs God.

And it’s because I love the United States that I wanna spend my life and help this church call our nation back to God. But before I’m a citizen of the United States, I’m a servant of the God who tells me to seek first his kingdom. Here’s what I’m trying to say. Political elections matter, but God’s election matters more by God’s election. I’m using as a theological word who God chooses. What God does, what God is up to. That’s what he should be passionate about. This isn’t to deny that this election isn’t important. I think it is. We can hold two truth at once, your heart can be pulled, but this is where our focus has to be. I spent the weekend in Connecticut doing Halloween with my grandkids, picked up a little sniffle from my grandson, but it was so worth it ’cause he wanted to hold my hand the whole time.

And I said I had to leave yesterday afternoon to fly back. My granddaughter got a little bit silent and she got that sad look and I said, what is it? And then she ran over the couch and buried her head and started crying. I said, what is it honey? And she goes, I don’t want you to go. And I didn’t want to go, but I needed to be here. You can have two passions. So I’m not saying elections don’t matter, politics don’t matter. I’m just saying that for the Christian, what we can agree on is God’s kingdom is preeminent in our passion, in our purpose, in our efforts and in our giving. We should be speaking the name of Jesus first and foremost throughout our life. I think we can agree on that. The second thing I hope we can agree on is this, that righteousness exalts a nation.

Proverbs 1434. But sin condemns any people when we live, as God calls us to live, men and women who are raising families that honor God, we work hard so that we can give to the common good, not take and suck out from others. We obey the laws. We’re there as good citizens. We are exalting the nation as we call it, back to God. But sin condemns any people and not just the sin of the candidates are sin. You are my sin. Look, it is messed up for your soul if you spend more time obsessing over a candidate’s sin than your own. Seriously, we need to repent of our sin. And this election focuses us to find the sins of others. But know a healthy Christian is repenting and receiving the righteousness of Christ. A healthy Christian is far more concerned about their sin than anyone else’s.

But the political parties have a different agenda than righteousness. They just do. They’re calling us back to financial prosperity, which I get that’s sort of their job. They’re calling us back to military might. Protecting its citizen is what a nation is supposed to do. They’re calling the nation back to personal liberty, which matters. But that becomes an issue sometimes because they want the liberty to do unrighteous things. One of the ads my wife showed me, it was just so messed up though, for this person so that your 16-year-old son can still look at porn. Now, I don’t think either party wants to take away porn, but they’re trying to say we will keep porn available. And we have a ministry here regen to help men and women who wanna stop looking at porn. We just have different agendas. They’re trying to win votes and they’ll go anywhere they can to win votes. We’re trying to win people for Christ.

So the church’s first call, I’m not saying that another, there isn’t another call, but the first call is to call the nation back to righteousness. That is to call ’em back to Christ. Why do I say that? I think it defends the nation. If we have all of the money and all of the liberty and all of the might, but we don’t have God, our days are numbered, we won’t be strengthened. We will fall as so many great nations and civilizations have fallen before us. Now here’s a challenge. It’s call the righteousness that the church has. It doesn’t make us popular and it makes popular elections very problematic. People wanna say, well, who defines righteousness? Well, God helps us with that. He says in Matthew 6 33, I’ve already quoted it, but let’s put it up here. He says, seek first the kingdom of God. And what?

What’s this word? His his righteousness. Not your peer group. Not what the New York Times says, not what the Hollywood celebrities say. God gets to define righteousness. So we’re not worried about what other people are saying is righteousness. We go to God to find his righteousness and that’s how we reach the summit. Jesus has this promise, if we do this, he does this. All these things will be added unto you as well. Now the reason this calls us to courage is that if you base your votes on biblical principles and moral values, you should actually be surprised if the person you vote for wins. It might surprise you. But think about what Jesus said in Matthew seven, verse 13 through 14. Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. And read this word with me, many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life.

And only a few find it. Now the contrast between the words many and few are alarming for democratically held election. Can I point out democracy is not in scripture. Democracy will not save us. We can’t depend on democracy to reach the summit. I don’t know of a better form of government, but democracy won’t lead us to where God wants us to go. Now I realize we’re not a democracy where a constitutional republic, but even within a constitutional republic, it’s based on popular voting. And Jesus says, we will be the outcasts. We will be the few, not the many. So that that will lead us toward unrighteousness. Unless yes, unless the church does its job of leading people to Jesus Christ. That’s how we find elections that actually win Without vigorous evangelism, we should expect to lose on issues we care most about. I know the issues are different for us.

My wife and I, early in our life, I worked for six years in the Washington DC area, got my share of politics working for a pro-life ministry called now called CareNet. They trained and develop pregnancy resource centers across the US and they did what a nonprofit is supposed to do. We had the charts that some people put up about here’s where a baby foreman the baby’s heart start being what a baby looks like. I was brought in as a seminary graduate to bring in the scriptural and historical stuff talking about Psalm 1 39 and John the Baptist in his mother’s womb and and whatnot and and try to provide some historical ballots. There’s been some progressive arguments. Christians only started caring about abortion in the eighties because they wanted power. You go back to the dake, which is the earliest Christian document next to the scriptures and it explicitly condemns infanticide and abortion.

It distinguishes between the two and says this is not appropriate for God’s people. Church has always stood on behalf of life because we honor the creator who made that life. But can I be honest, 99% of the time when I saw somebody go from abortion until birth to pro-life and wanting to honor and protect the young vulnerable life in the womb, 99% of the time it was not because they were convinced by photographs of an unborn baby. It’s not because they were awed by my ex of Jesus of Psalm 1 39. Almost every time it’s because they became a Christian. They started worshiping the creator and they realized that all things are created by him and for him and that changed their mind on so many other issues. So when I’m arguing faith, I think I’m arguing life. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think politics are important.

I’m just going at it from a different angle. I was at a meeting with a bunch of really successful business people earlier this year. I didn’t belong there. I was the only person there not in business. And there’s some very interesting personalities. There’s one guy there another state. He’s not a person of faith as much as I know, but he’s very interesting to talk to. And he threw out the provocative statement ’cause there’s a time in the evening to talk. Yeah, I always vote Republican down ballot and democrat up ballot by down ballot. He means local elections and as a businessman he wants less regulations and whatnot. But then he votes democrat up ballot. And I said, well that’s interesting. Can you explain why? And I already knew he mentioned two issues. There’s the same two issues virtually every celebrity endorser uses when they’re endorsing that side.

You already know what they are before I say ’em. I’ll give you a second to think about it. But he said basically abortion and L-G-B-T-Q because of that, that’s how he’s going to vote up ballot. And I found I could spend 10 hours with him trying to show him the pictures of baby. I could try to explain scriptures but he doesn’t revered the scriptures. That wouldn’t do any good. But I could have another conversation as I did there with another businessman, this one from China whose wife is actually related to members of the communist Chinese party leadership. He calls himself an atheist. At least he has. But God is on the move. He’s met some guys who are Christians. He knew I was a pastor. So he’s asking me all these questions. We’re talking about Jesus, what the Christian life means and we get done.

And I tell him, you know in in my experience when people are asking me these questions, God has already got ’em. I said, I think it’s just a matter of time until you become a Christian. And he shocked me and he said, I think you’re right Gary. I think it probably is inevitable that I become a Christian. So we got back and I sent him a copy of mere Christianity by CS Lewis ’cause he’s very smart and intelligent. I thought that would reach him. And I think in doing that, ultimately long term, I’m leading someone to see life. Our first pursuit isn’t to get people to agree with us on political issues. It’s to get people to agree with us on Jesus and lead people into right ver worship before we stress right voting again, not that voting isn’t important. Not that there isn’t a place for political persuasion and petitions.

I’m not denying that there’s people that are called to that and you should do it with all your heart. But I believe that focusing on God’s election is the most effective way of impacting human elections. The third thing I hope that we can agree on is this. And whether you agree or not, it’s just true. <Laugh>, we are going to be living around and sometimes governed by very wicked people. But Jesus offers a subversive plan. Jesus knew how the world would be for thousands of years and his followers knew at times we would be living amongst and even governed by wicked people. But that doesn’t hamstring the work of Jesus. He has this wonderfully powerful subversive plan to help us. So I I just wanna give you a little historical perspective as we go into election week. I was born in 1961. JFK was president then for about a year before he was assassinated.

So we had eight years of JFK and Johnson who were Democrats. So you might think the country decided eight years, they decided we wanna be Democrats. Well, not so much because that led to eight years of Nixon and Ford Republicans. So the country, well we tried Democrats, we wanna go Republican. Well, not so much because then they went to four years of Jimmy Carter. Now it’s unusual, it was only four years. But if you were alive back then with 13% interest rates for houses, long gas lines and a mess in the Middle East, they were done with him, which led to 12 years of Republican rule with Reagan and Bush. He said, look, we’ve tried the other one, it’s a disaster. We got it. We’re following the Republicans. Well, not so much because 12 years of Reagan and Bush led to eight years of Bill Clinton.

Okay? Finally we decided made a lot of time. But now we are Democrat. Well, not so much because eight years of Bill Clinton led to eight years of George W. Bush Republican, which led to eight years of Barack Obama Democrat, which led to four years of Donald Trump Republican with Covid and all the craziness which has led us to four years of Joe Biden Democrat. What I’m trying to say, democracies flip-flop. It’s what we do. If you care about politics as I do, you will live half of your life frustrated with whoever’s in the Oval Office. <Laugh> you half of your life, you’re gonna be frustrated. I can’t believe that person is leading it. And if that’s your first passion, you’re gonna be miserable for half your life. Your hope will go up and down like an elevator. And every time I’ve been old enough to hear people electioneering, I have heard, and you’ve heard it too, and you’ll be able to finish this statement.

This will be the most important election of our lifetime. And I kind of agree with this one. I mean I do, I think there are two very different visions. I can’t believe I’m saying this again, but can I just provide a little perspective? If I was born in 61, I’m older than probably most of you and younger than some of you. But some of those enemies that we thought we would never survive, were still standing. And some of the people I so wanted to be in charge or so wanted to get appointed or confirmed. And they have man, they disappoint us. I remember some i I prayer and fasting meetings for some people God show favor. Let them win. Let them be confirmed. And then you see what they do. And I’m like, I prayed and fasted for that <laugh>. I should have had a pizza party and watch the band of brothers for all the good it did.

Our country <laugh> seriously, their enemies end up not being able to completely take us down. Your friends will disappoint you because Jesus isn’t on the ticket. But he’s not inactive. He has a subversive plan that regardless of who is in office, his kingdom marches forward. Paul knew this. He wrote to the Philippians chapter three for I’ve told you often before. And I say it again with tears in my eyes. Paul is literally weeping over the state of what’s happening in his part of the world. There are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross. Not only are they not friends, they are persecuting us. They’re headed for destruction. He doesn’t take, he doesn’t rejoice in it. He’s crying over it. Their God is their appetite by appetite. He doesn’t just mean food. It’s every sensual desire. If I want it, I will have it.

If you try to take this away that because that’s their God. It’s what they worship. It’s what drives them. They brag about shameful things. I’m just so glad we never see that happening today, that anybody brags about shameful things and they think only about this life here on earth. I’m talking about the kingdom of God. They don’t give two seconds of thought of what God is up to. Their God is their stomach and their desires and their own passions. That’s the world Paul lived in. That’s the world that people lived in that he was writing to. And then he says this, but here’s what’s next. We are citizens of heaven. That’s what’s going on here. He says, but but we’re citizens of heaven. We’re still here. And it doesn’t mean that we’re not involved in this earth. It means we’re like a colony that tries to impact this earth.

Philippi was a colony of Rome. Rome. Paul was in Rome when he was writing. And and Philippi was where Caesar dropped a lot of retired soldiers. It was sort of a safety measure. If you’re Caesar, you don’t want a bunch of retired and board soldiers just milling around. ’cause If they get too bored, they might decide they’re gonna off you. Right? And and so they were sent to Philippi, but they were there to represent Rome, to protect Rome, to represent the interest of Rome. And Paul says that’s what it’s like to be a Christian. We’re citizens of another place, but we represent Christ in that place. Which is why I think we need to vote. I think it’s essential for us to represent Christ to vote. We want people who worship God and whose hearts are passionate about the things of God to vote for people that they think will make that best.

We want people who care about God’s word to be informed about God’s word to vote. I can’t think of a reason not to vote and make it so easy here in this state. I mentioned I was in Connecticut this weekend with the grandkids. When I came back to the airport last night, somebody had ripped my license plate off my car. This stole, it was gone. I told my wife, she says, boy, you better report that because I can’t think of a good reason why somebody would steal a license plate. I can let her go. I, I agree with you, honey. I I don’t think there’s any holy reason that somebody steals a license plate from a car that they’re just up to do good works. Right?

But just like there’s no good reason to steal a license plate, there’s no good reason for us Christians not to vote. And when I see the statistics that so many of us don’t, I don’t think we’re taking up our call enough. But here’s the thing. What’s our response? I want you to hear this. What’s our response when the person we vote for loses gotta wait four years? There’s nothing that’s gonna happen. Or what’s our response when the person we vote for wins? Do we relax? Okay? They’re gonna take care of everything. They’re gonna fix everything. If you’re a Christian, I would say no and no. If you’re a Christian, you know, political victories don’t elevate the church. And political defeats don’t crush it because Jesus has a subversive plan. Paul was in Rome when he wrote to the Philippians. It was in 62 ad Does anybody know who was Nero?

Who was Caesar? I just told you. <Laugh>. Does anybody know who was Caesar in 62 Ad Nero? Hey, you’re actually listening to me. Great. <Laugh> Nero was like the most godless, blood thirsty, immoral Caesar who ever served. He burned Christians up, he confiscated their homes. Here’s how he was as a man. He wanted divorce his wife and marry another woman. And his mom didn’t agree. So you know what he did? He killed his mom, right? And he wanna deal with her rolling her eyes. So he removed her. I mean, I don’t mean to get too gross, but that’s what he did. Let’s just kill her. I won’t have to deal with the drama. So it would’ve been so easy for the early church to say, look, we just gotta hang on Nero’s in charge. What can we do? But Paul shows the subversiveness of Christ. This is so beautiful.

Philippians 4 22. I just love this passage. Paul writes to them and he says this, all God’s people here in Rome send you greetings especially. And this is just, this is just how Paul writes. Somebody could just read over this letter and not catch it. But Paul is getting, especially, look, everybody here in Rome, they’re sending you their greens. Especially, I want you to know those who belong to Caesars household. He’s telling the Philippians, we got somebody in Caesar’s household. The faith is spreading. There are people who worship Jesus in Caesar’s household and they say, Hey, we’re here. There is hope. See, Nero didn’t realize it. To imprison Paul in Rome was like bringing dynamite into your bed. When you’re a smoker, it’s gonna blow up in your face. That’s Jesus’s subversive plan. Imagine if you’re a Christian in communist China. What, what do they do? What hope do they have? Unless, unless there’s a businessman in the United States once an atheist who becomes a Christian and his wife impressed by the change, she becomes a Christian and maybe her relatives see the difference in their life now that their Christian and her relatives in the Chinese party leadership become a Christian. Could that happen?

It has before. So this is our point. The battle isn’t over on Tuesday. It begins on Wednesday. We’ve gotta be honest. Both parties ran away from righteousness in their conventions. Well, I I don’t think that they’re the same. I think one is, is a more dangerous option to pick. But they have their own priorities, not ours. Neither one is selling. Let’s make America righteous again, hats. Neither one is putting up. Let’s make America worship Jesus again. Hats and they shouldn’t. That’s the church’s job because we believe the summit isn’t reached when the person we want to be president is elected president. We believe this church believes the summit is reached when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

The famous evangelist. Billy Graham was so popular in the sixties. People started asking him to run for president his wife Ruth, shut that down. She said, if you run for president, I’ll divorce you. And the country will never elect a divorce man president, which isn’t true anymore. But that’s what it was back then. <Laugh>. But his popularity only increased. And so in the sixties, Richard Nixon actually offered him his position as a vice presidential running mate. According to a pastor who knew Billy Graham. Billy Graham sat it on on a night. ’cause He was really interested in politics like me. I mean, he had a lot of interest. Like a lot of you, he knew what mattered. But he wrote back to Nixon and said, look, I, I have to respectfully decline. God has called me to preach the gospel and I can’t step down to be vice President of the United States.

Now that doesn’t mean the Vice President isn’t important, but here’s the thing. Another man who did serve under Nixon was Chuck Colson. A lot of you have read his books. He died some years ago. A lot of people have forgotten about him. But he became a Christian while he was in prison because of what happened during Watergate. And when he got out, he talked about how virtually every major thing that they accomplished during the Nixon administration, there were a lot of good things that happened. He said, we’re overturned by subsequent Democrat administrations through Carter and then through Clinton. So that by the end of the Clinton administration, almost everything he had given his life for is gone. But you know what wasn’t gone? One man who didn’t serve as vice president for four years, but continued to spread the gospel for 40 years and led literally millions of souls into the kingdom of God. And I believe exalted the nation through righteousness. And we need a revival like that today. I care what happens on Tuesday. I care just as much what happens on Wednesday and Thursday and the days following. So we’re putting on our purple make America righteous again. Hats we’re putting on our let’s make America worship Jesus again, hats because we believe the DNA of this church is that the summit will only be reached when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Father, I thank you

These beautiful, intelligent, wonderful God loving people that I get to worship with every week. Their faith has informed me. Some have helped me to know how to vote here and the elections here. I’m just so grateful to be a part of this body. And I pray that we would be more fired up than ever before to see your kingdom go forward. Lord, still the fears of those who are just think the world will end based on the election. But Lord, also let those who think that everything will be fixed. If it isn’t realized, it’s time to get to work. We are your people. We are citizens of heaven. We wanna honor you with the way that we celebrate or mourn. This week. Let us show the world where we place our hope. In Jesus name, amen.